Radiohead go for single album deals in future

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has told Rolling Stone magazine that his band intend to stay without a long term recording contract. Radiohead, still one of the biggest bands in the UK of course, have not entered into a new record deal since their contract with EMI ended last year. Yorke now says that the band intends to look for single album deals as and when new long players are ready for release, rather than pursuing a long term relationship with any one record company. That is an approach Yorke has taken with his debut solo album, ‘The Eraser’, which is being released by Beggars imprint XL via a one album deal.

Confirming that intent to Rolling Stone’s David Fricke, Yorke said that the only downside of being without a long term record contract was that the band lacked a rigid deadline: “My big problem with corporate structure is this bizarre sense of loyalty you’re supposed to feel-towards what is basically a virus. It grows or dies, like any virus. And you use it for your own selfish ends. Jonny [Greenwood] had a big problem with the fact that we didn’t have any obligation – a release date or anything. He found it difficult to work in a vacuum. Which is one of the reasons why we chose to go out on tour: ‘This is something we can work toward’. It’s human nature. Personally, I don’t have that. But I can see why, if you’re a group of people, you need it.”